For Christ's sake, what was she thinking? Even if she wasn't going to dance, did she know the way these men were going to look at her? Like she was a piece of meat? Like she was just fodder for their next fantasy?
His fists clenched just thinking about it, and he gritted his teeth, trying to come up with a strategy. When she came out, he could just go to the truck and listen in to the bug he'd planted near the mobsters. But then he'd be leaving her here, defenseless.
Alone with these sexual vultures.
But then matters were out of his hands as she appeared from behind a curtain, dressed in sleek white stockings, tiny powder blue panties, and a matching crystal studded bra that highlighted the hourglass curve of her frame and her ample cleavage.
As if it hadn't been hard enough for him to not oogle her in the car on the way over, now she was dressed for nothing less than torture. His mouth watered just looking at her, and, unbidden, he imagined just how easy it might be to slide the fabric of her bra aside and take one of her nipples into his mouth and suck until she moaned his name...
Like a dancer, she walked through the floor, smiling at the men at each table like she was a natural. Like she'd been trained to be the stuff of fantasy. And she was. The Cinderella of the strip club.
And, just like a princess, she drew every eye in the room. It was as though the girls on the stage were forgotten, and nobody cared about anything but the beauty traipsing across the room and headed straight for the mobsters.
They noticed, too. While two guys bit their thumbs, the leader of the group summoned her over and rubbed his lap, inviting her to take a seat.
Derrick's jaw ticked as he watched her smile at them more broadly, almost sit down, and then get back up again.
Good. Hard to get. All she needs to do is keep that up and then...
And then what? He could avoid committing a homicide?
He tried to slide a little closer in the leather seat to see what was happening, but as soon as they were in earshot a girl with auburn waves of hair and a pretty, heart-shaped face straddled him. "You look lonely. Want some company? Maybe a dance?"
He glanced at the girl, barely noticing her, and shook her off. "What? No. I just—"
He almost pointed to Jade, but she was gone, the mobsters looking less than thrilled in her wake.
"Right, well, I'll be around Handsome."
She slid from his lap and Derrick craned around, doing his best to try and find Jade. Maybe she'd gone to get them drinks or—
"And now, it's our pleasure to welcome to the stage the very sexy Dai-sy." The announced called over a song with a heavy guitar beat, and then the spotlight was on the little break between mirrors, shining on straight blonde hair that cascaded all the way down to the stripper's firm, rounded bottom.
No, not the stripper's. Jade's.
"Fuck," Derrick muttered, then glanced at the mob guys who were already getting their wallets out and heading for the stage.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." he'd known this was a bad idea. Fumbling for his own wallet, he scrambled from his table and made for the stage as Jade strutted toward the pole.
Just stay there. Just don't—
She caressed the metal bar up and down, then wrapped a leg around it and swung in a little circle, her hair flying behind her in the breeze. As she gyrated and moved, he could think of nothing but those grubby men's hands on her, the way they bit their knuckles. The way they thought they could own her just like everything else.
He pulled money from his wallet and beckoned her over with it, and, dropping to her knees, she crawled across the stage toward him and his cock stiffened as he caught sight of her. As he imagined her doing this on the floor of his bedroom just before she took him into her mouth and...
"What are you doing?" she hissed when she finally reached him, then she whipped her hair behind her and shook her ass.
"We need to get out of here," he hissed back, and then stuck a twenty in her G-string.
"Have we been made?" she asked, glancing toward the security guard. The man made a motion for her to get the action going, and she offered him a tense grin.
"No, but there's another way to do this. Come on, let's go." He almost reached out to touch her as she turned to face the mobsters, but eh held back.
"You don't think that'd be suspicious? If we just left?" she asked.
"I think..." He rummaged in his wallet, then pulled out two hundred-dollar bills and waved them at the bouncer before stuffing them into the side of Jade's panties. He made a motion to the doorman for them to go, and the man nodded.
"Woah, big spender," the announcer called, then continued, "Next to the stage, we've got the glamorously sexy Cry-stal!"